![]() ![]() ![]() Sometimes the shepherd must assist in order to save the life of the mother, the baby or both. However, sometimes all does not go according to plan. It is something I never tire of seeing and if truth be told, I have wasted countless hours simply watching in awe this miracle. ![]() I can still remember the first time I saw a lamb expelled from it’s mother, on the ground, and within a few minutes it was walking wobbly-legged in search of its mother’s teat. The miracle of birth graces our farm almost year long. The joy of birth never gets old – and sometimes is not easy (This lesson applies to more than a flock of sheep.) 4. The more concern the shepherd has for the individuals who are in need of health care, supplemental food assistance or individual attention, the healthier the flock and the more profitable the whole operation is. Assisting with the birth of a lamb when needed, caring for a lamb orphaned by its mother, providing the expectant mother with enhanced nutrition or weaning a lamb in a compassionate manner are all part of that job. This means being able to identify a sick or injured sheep or lamb within a flock of hundreds or thousands of sheep. But the success of a shepherd or shepherdess is in the compassion they have for each individual. Providing clean water, ample forage and shelter to an entire flock is essential to maintaining the health of the flock. Shepherds, like the sheep themselves, learn quickly that the path to success depends on tending to the flock but caring for the individual. You just have to be smart enough to recognize it Sheep are smarter than everyone thinks they are. It is a personal satisfaction with few equals. Lambing (the birthing of lambs) often occurs at night, in the cold, and is a solitary farming task where the reward is personal satisfaction in perhaps saving a life of a ewe or bringing a lamb into the world that otherwise would not make it. Shepherding requires more hands-on work than most livestock farming. The famed cattle-sheep wars of the 1850’s saw some cattlemen realizing there was more money to be made in sheep than cattle, but they still they never called themselves “shepherds.” I find great pride in doing the ancient work of caring for sheep, the humble work of caring for the sick, ensuring the health of each individual, providing feed and shelter and protecting the safety and health of the flock. In fact, the shepherd has often been cast as the villain, the migratory farmer who was ruining the cattle grazing land of the west. Shepherds have never been romanticized like the western cowboy. Shepherds have typically been the transient or migratory workforce since the the early days of agriculture. The work of shepherding is left to the “lowly” or “immigrant” shepherds. From the shepherds of the hills of Scotland, to the shepherds of the new Western frontier, to the Basque shepherds who migrated from Mexico and became the shepherds of the far west and the emancipated slaves who headed west with prolific breeding sheep as their source of livelihood, all have been discriminated upon and viewed as a lowly class over the ages.Įven today, many wish not to be referred to as “shepherds” but instead as ranchers, land owners, or flock owners. Over the centuries, nothing has changed much. Hence, even the angels came to the shepherds, the lowliest of all men, to share the news of the birth of Christ, as the story is told. From the beginning of time, shepherds have been the proverbial “ditch diggers,” the down-trodden, the disrespected. ![]()
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